Our recent look at available (air group) data for Midway's sister-ships, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Coral Sea, during the (total) period of interest roughly 1954 through '57, revealed more similarities than not, between the three. This possibly also being the case for their overal fits/fittings, I would now back up and work from the hypothesis that the trio were essentially identical - unless and except for any difference(s) we can uncover.

One major item - in fact, the "600-lb gorilla in the room" hovering over everything so far - is an already-substantial refit applied to their bows, enclosing the anchor deck:


Click on Image for FULL-RESIn May, 1952 we find Midway has a brand-new looking "baby hurricane bow", which leaves the original clipper bow exposed - the heavy "oil-canning" of the latter bespeaking the need of the former - as one can only imagine the tons of water shipped aboard, by waves capable of such pounding, on the bow. Lacking this substantial feature the Revell kit thus depicts Midway too early for the Cougars provided! Note the actual planes on deck are not Cougars but their predecessors, Panthers (straight wings, canted outward when folded). (Oooops!...methinks somebody mastering the kit didn't pay close enough attention to which kind of "F9F": the "-5", or the "-6"!) In any case, such crucially-needed protection for one sister could be expected to be given to all, and indeed that's what our other reference pics (below) all confirm. So, a bit of (not particularly hard) scratchbuilding, if you want the bow to be correct.

Open-Mount Twin-3"50cals
Also prominent above are the pair of twin-3"50cal open mounts, which had (long) before 1952 replaced all original quad-40mms, on all 3 of The Sisters. The Revell kit does depict these - poorly (though not as poorly as some others) - and you can achieve infinitely better using Matt Stein Models' 3"50s - another item not yet listed at the website, but available (and priced) by custom/special order. Here is a look at 'em, assembled and painted - plus, PE (not included) can be added, as well.

Comparing features of the whole class, it becomes even more important to go round-robin on all available references from the era of interest - still, just a small total number of pics:


Click on Image to Enlarge
FULL RES---------FULL RESStarting with Rosie in November, 1952, these two pics - taken within minutes of each other, by a circling aircraft - reveal she already has her Baby-Hurricane enclosure, as well as twin-3"50cals, wherever visible. Three aircraft - an F2H-2-sized Banshee and two SkyRaiders (impossible to further identify, due to fuzziness) - are entirely compatible with the FDR's GoNavy listing, as well as those of her sisters at the time. Note FDR still retains her original, forward-facing tripod mast - the only sister to do so (see below) - as also in your Revell kit, which essentially depicts the original WWII fit, with a few later aircraft and AA guns substituted.

Mk37 Gun Directors
The above origin of the Revell kit is additionally evident from the two Mk37 gun directors on the island, incorrectly depicted with WWII-vintage "bedspring accordion" radar antennae instead of the later dish antennae, encountered (wherever visible) in all our reference pics. Particularly above, at right - especially when viewed at full-resolution - which additionally shows the taper in the front of the real Mk37 cabs, which Revell also failed to reflect. The Good News is, of course - you guessed it - Matty's Models' Mk37 Directors are far more accurate - and come replete with extra radars and hatches to finish them, as you can see, to depict virtually any of the (numerous) variants of this device (with the tapered-front cab), ever to go to sea.

Our next reference pics date from 1954:


Click on Image to Enlarge
-------FULL RES-----------FULL RESAt left, a pic of Coral Sea "sometime around" 1954 is one of our best, confirming her baby-hurricane enclosure and twin-3"50cals (again, some with a radar dish and some without). Her tripod is reversed - splayed legs pointing forward - clearly to make room for a boxy (probably radar-CIC) shack atop the island, whose forward Mk37 director is all but positively identifiable as the "Cold War 3-hatch" variant - again, one which can be made from the Matty's Models upgrade (as shown second-from-right, in the linked pic). And at right, our May 20, 1954 pic of Midway mirrors virtually all the above - from the reversed tripod, down to small gun-director cabs (see below) - in the same locations seen on Coral Sea, at left.

Mk 56 Gun Directors
Particularly visible above on Coral Sea is a small, radar (-dish) equipped gun director, on a small platform ahead of island - with another across the deck, in line-of-sight, on the portside, and yet a third just the other side of two 5-inch turrets, before the deck-edge elevator. Based on this and our other pics, all The Sisters apparently mounted 3 such smaller directors on each side - often looking very much like Mk56 directors. Not that you would know it from the Revell mold, which doesn't have any director cabs whatsoever - again, clearly evoking an earlier fit, which, though depicting for example the small platform ahead of the bridge, places only a small peg there, representing a manual, WWII-type director. If in fact by 1954 some or all these were Mk56 directors (or something very similar), you could utilize Matt Stein Models Mk56 Directors to depict them (reasonably) accurately.

Our final two pics date from 1955:


Click on Image to Enlarge
FULL RES--------FULL RES--
At left, a pic taken "around" 1955 finally shows Midway clearly enough to confirm a "3-hatch"-type Mk37 director on the forward (and no doubt also aft) end of her island, as well as reversed tripod and small, dish-equipped director ahead of the island, as well as another below it, behind a twin-3"50cal mount (also with a its own dish). These pics - the one at right showing Coral Sea on 28 July, 1955 - connect AJ Savages to both ships, at about the same time. In fact, all the above pics, together with "GoNavy" aircraft lists pretty consistently define a "standard" aircraft suite - granted, with the occasional addition/deletion - for all Three Sisters, during this era:

- Cougars
- Retrievers
- "Bubble-Canopy" Skyraiders
- "Long-Canopy" Skyraiders
- "Little Banjo" Banshees
- "Big Banjo" Banshees
- Savages

Parts depicting the first two, above were adequately included in the Revell kit, with virtually all the rest currently available as upgrade options identified earlier.

So, is that enough info - and accessory options - to not only consider Midway for this build, but to enlist her sisters, too?

Cheers,

-Matty